When I first saw my neurologist, when he diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis, ten years ago, he said to me – Move It or Lose It. I’ve held to that idea, more or less, this whole time since then. Sometimes I do more than just holding to the idea, and I actually get moving! And sometimes of course, I just veg out, doing nothing extra to help my body out.
Recently is one of my getting moving times. The past week or so, I’ve been concentrating on doing extra steps, doing extra steps briskly, inside the house, mostly, wearing my Slippers, (hence the heading of this article), but also outside along the front and or back veranda, and beyond, wearing my rubber ankle boots, or my runners.
Counting the steps in my head, sometimes noting down how many steps I’ve done on my calendar, or on my Facebook page, and feeling good about what I’ve done. Each of my brisk steps is half a metre, so if I do 200 of my brisk steps, that’s 100 metres walked.
That might not seem like much to active people, but I’m much more of a sit and think, and then write kind of person, than a walk and then run kind of person. So being active, and walking briskly isn’t my usual way. But I’m aware of the studies that say walking is good for the brain, and for creativity, as well as being good for the body. This is one such study.
Exercise, at an elevated rate than normal is good for the body too. as I noted, this study has more information about that, for those interested. I have a ‘bad knee’ (my right one) and jogging or running don’t appeal to me, or to my knee, but brisk walking doesn’t seem to give my bad knee any troubles, so I’ll try hard, to keep up with this brisk walking idea.
Parking my car further away is another ploy I’ve been trying to remember to use. With this Covid-19 world, I’m not going out very often, so this hasn’t been happening much, and my husband and I have been sharing the one car for the past few months. But we have another car that we’re picking up soon, so I’ll be able to go out more.
Parking just a few hundred metres further away, if done often and tied to other bits of extra brisk walking, they can all add up together for good things for you, both body, brain and mood. So, don’t be a sit on your bum booby, get up and walk a bit!
I’ve found that walking around inside my house is bringing things to my attention that I may not have noticed otherwise. I walk into different rooms, around the dining table, into the kitchen, and out again. I go from one end of the house, and back, into a room and out, up and down, around and around inside.
And the good thing is, if I were to wear out the carpet doing this, then yay, it might be the impetus needed to finally get some decent flooring for this house. I’ve never liked our carpet in this house, but I’ve put up with it for various reasons. Putting rugs down on the carpet improve the look of it, to some extent, but who knows, if the carpet was badly wrecked …
And a point – my slippers are not the best ever things to wear when walking, but walking on the carpet, and tiles inside, that seems to be fine with them. I’ll remember what happened that time I went outside, wearing them, and keep safe – boots or shoes only outside, not my inside slippers. I don’t want to break my ankle again!
Mick, Jane and Me 